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2017.02.27 Meeting Notes
To say we had a well-attended February book club might be a bit of an understatement. We welcomed Gail and re-welcomed Jennifer to the club. Many of you will remember Jennifer, she used to be a member and is now returning to us after a few years. We mixed it up a bit, cause that’s how we roll. We had a discussion of the book first and fleshed out all of the good and bad. Then we went around the room to get individual scores and opinions. I liked this and I think I’ll do it from now on. When we go around the room first, people bring up great discussion ideas and it’s hard to not all want to jump in and discuss them as they’re raised. At the meeting, we discussed Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once. In the book, former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself. The book got some pretty good reviews on the whole. The lowest score were the two 4s (you know who you are). We also had one 5, one 7.5, ten 8s, two 8.5s, two 9s and four 10s. Here’s what everyone had to say: Sharon L: It was Harlan’s best book! Judy: I love Harlan, it was so engrossing that at 3 am I finally had to put it down to sleep. Terri: I love Harlan Coben’s books. Denise: Interesting characters but not enough explanation at the end. Judith surprised me. Dennis: I liked that it opened with the murder. Pat: I couldn’t put it down, I kept saying ‘just one more chapter.’ I would have preferred Maya live at the end and get away with the murder. (We decided this was the chick flick ending) Bruce: There was too much witty repartee. Janine: I couldn’t put it down, it was fast-paced but a bit convoluted. Jay: I liked the intertwining stories and I couldn’t find a lot of holes in the plot. (We know Jay looks for these) Dave: Ditto to Jay, I loved the book. Jose: I didn’t love it. I couldn’t root for anyone. I didn’t like Maya at all, she had no remorse and her dying at the end served her right. I did like Judith and how evil she was. Jeff: It drew me in, I had trouble putting it down. Janice: Not my favorite Coben. I expect better from Harlan. Amy: I liked it but I didn’t love it. There was no sass! (You go girl) Deborah: I didn’t like Maya and I didn’t like the unreliable narrator. Gail: It was a quick and easy read. Jennifer: It was good. (Jennifer if you’re going to rejoin the group you’re going to have to really pare down these reviews or we’ll just never get around the room) Kim: It was rambly. (ditto on the Jennifer comment, Kim) Chris: I love Harlan and this was a good book. Lorraine: The epilogue was weird how it jumped ahead so far and changed point of view. Sharon K.: I read it twice because I read it the first time so long ago. I liked it. We had a tie for the slap vote, so we’re slapping both Joe and Judith. Concept to remember (in case there’s a quiz or something): Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case, the simpler one is usually better. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is. I assume that everyone knows what book we are reading for March and who is leading an bringing snacks, but Occam’s tells me that that is probably an unlikely scenario. Therefore: we will meet next on Monday, March 27th to discuss Emelie Schepp’s Marked For Life. Kerry will lead and Kim will bring snacks. See you on the 27th. Oh yeah, and I need to leave the table tents for Terri to use in April. I would appreciate if someone reminds me at the March meeting so I don’t walk off with them. Kerry